Making a Difference

photokunst specializes in representing cause-oriented photography and projects. Our collaborating photographers personal projects, and the causes they passionately pursue, are making a difference – impacting and inspiring people around the world. Below are updates about some works-in-progress:

Acclaimed photographers Carol Beckwith & Angela Fisher have spent the past 30 years preserving African traditions through their photography. Their charitable foundation, African Ceremonies, Inc., continues this mission of preservation, supporting the communities Beckwith & Fisher have documented, through locally focused community and individual projects. They continue their work as chroniclers of Africa’s vanishing cultures, and took seven exciting fieldwork trips in 2014 into the heart of Africa’s most remote regions.

Joey L is well-known in the commercial photography world for his celebrity portrait work and inspiring creative treatments, but he also has an intense curiosity and passion for understanding and preserving cultures in remote areas of the world. He recently donated use of a group of his “Cradle of Mankind” images to Survival International, an organization working to defend the livelihoods and cultures of tribes throughout the world. He documented in stills and film, tribes in Ethiopia’s Omo Valley. His film project “People of the Delta” is in the editing phase Survival Internationals “Omo Valley Tribes” focus: A massive hydro-electric dam, Gibe III, is under construction on the Omo, threatening a fragile environment and the livelihoods of the tribes, which are closely linked to the river and its annual flood.

Jamey Stillings writes, “I am at a dynamic and vibrant point in my photographic career — a nexus formed from the cumulative and varied experiences of the past few decades. It is a time to summon my creative intuition, interpersonal skills, and seasoned perspectives to foster new work that has meaning, substance and relevance.” Stillings’ ongoing project series “Changing Perspectives“, including his recently completed “Evolution of Ivanpah Solar”, invites serious consideration and conversation. “Renewable energy projects such as Ivanpah solar also raise challenging questions about land and resource use, exposing differing perspectives and contradictions within the environmental movement, local communities, the energy industry, and general public. While Ivanpan Solar is located in the American West, the issues encountered during it’s planning and construction are global ones and relevent to future environmentally-responsible energy projects” The completed project is in the process of becoming a book (to be published in 2015 by Steidl) and a traveling museum exhibition.

Dorothy Kerper Monnelly has spent the past 35 years photographing and advocating for the protection of the Massachusetts’ Great Marsh, an ecosystem that prior to her work was deemed a wasteland. A celebrated landscape photographer, her images are currently included in the exhibition “Fragile Waters,” along with other renowned photographers Ernest Brooks II and Ansel Adams, currently at The Las Cruces Museum of Art, New Mexico through January 10, 2015. Close to home and heart is her ongoing award-winning work for Essex County Greenbelt Association.

Pioneer of underwater photography and internationally acclaimed diver, Ernest H. Brooks II, has spent his life educating people about photography and the marine environment, using his imagery to inspire others to preserve delicate marine locales for generations to come. Brooks has generously shared his passion and gift as an educator, speaking and offering workshops around the world, recently in conjunction with the exhibition “Fragile Waters.” The exhibition presents his iconic images in combination with with photographs by Dorothy Kerper Monnelly and Ansel Adams. Additionally two of Brooks’ favorite organizations to support are: Academy of Arts & Sciences and Historical Diving Society of America.

Pulitzer Award winning photojournalist Marissa Roth has spent much of her career documenting human rights issues. One of her recent projects, One Person Crying: Women & War, concerns the impact of war on women, and is a culmination of 30 years of work covering multiple conflicts around the world.. Roth’s One Person Crying: Women and War photography exhibition has traveled to Germany, France, and within the U.S., and will be opening at Venice Arts, in Venice, CA January 15, running through March 12, 2015.

“The consequences of war for women in countries, cultures and communities that are directly affected by it, have often been overlooked. My main hope for this project is to show that war doesn’t discriminate how it metes out pain or suffering, that women are basically the same everywhere in how they endure war and live with its aftermath into their post-war lives. I also hope that this project inspires dialog and activism, in order to bring on-the-ground psychological and social support to these war-impacted women.” Marissa Roth